Robots & Jetpacks

Back on the 25th of June, Rob Walker wrote an interesting article for the New York Times title, “Tinkerer’s Toy” about a novel little connected device call the Chumby. In describing the curious little device Walker writes,

The Chumby is a fairly innocent-looking object resembling a clock radio, with a small touch screen and a leather-covered, padded exterior that feels like a beanbag. It costs $180, and it turns out that “alpha geeks,” … have been the primary target audience so far. What a Chumby does, basically, is display widgets - and your reaction to that shorthand explanation will situate you on the geek continuum .. What put the Chumby on the radar of people like Carla Diana, however, is what it might be made to do. The Chumby is Internet-connected, runs on Linux software and is extremely hackable. In other words, it is a thoroughly open-source device.

To me, there is something remarkably interesting about this device. That isn’t to say I’ve rushed out and purchased one (nor do I really plan to), however, the notion of being able to purchase a device that will continue to be improved over time is what is especially interesting. To be clear, improvements and upgrades to the Chumby are not dependant on you, the purchaser, buying the latest model (the 2.0 rev) or even having to purchase new software. Improvements are made by hackers. Now, don’t fret. Hacking, in this case, isn’t a sentimental journey to the halcyon days of Wargames but the means by which developers (aka CodeMonkeys) can build new “widgets” that can run on the Chumby.

For some (though not many in education) the Open Source Model of user-developers as contributors is not especially new. Sadly, education seems to be especially slow to adopt or even consider Open Source. I can’t even begin to recall the number of conversations I’ve had with schools or teachers where they run away from open source out of fear of lack of stability or lack of support. I, for one, think just the opposite is the case - and, you don’t have to look very far to see that others agree (see http://www.openacademic.org/news/building-a-student-portal).

So, what does this have to do with your local teacher? 

Probably, not much. But, what I think it could have to do with your teacher (or your child’s teacher) is to adopt this same sort of model whereby we eschew some of the typical strategies for professional development (i.e., “let’s all get together and map our curricula for two days”) to a model whereby educators can be “hacked”. That is, what would it mean for the broader education community to be able to hack teachers to improve their teaching and improve their curriculum?

* Originally posted on Clarity Innovations Foundry

Over the years I feel like I’ve met many a person who has told me that one of the things they most like about vacationing in someplace different is to be able to “people watch.” And, I must confess, the idea of being in a sunny, foreign local alongside a busy avenue gazing out at passersby appeals to me, as well. Whether watching a young couple in love or a vendor haggling over a sale with a potential customer, it is always “strangely captivating” to observe others. Some of my fondest travel memories are of just that. For instance, some years ago in Rome, I recall seeing a young priest sitting on a bench (happily smoking a cigar) in a rather heated discourse, as a particularly memorable moment. Language barriers aside (I like to imagine he was speaking Esperanto) I was not close enough (nor creepy enough) to overhear what he was saying. Regardless, it was indeed captivating.

So, why am I writing this? Because of Twitter. I won’t claim to be a Twitter-fanatic, but I use it. Or, rather, I pay attention to it and occasionally take advantage of it. I won’t bore you with a long exegesis as to why Twitter is important (I’m not sure it is) nor will I spend much time extolling the virtues of “the network”.* What I will do is list some reasons that it is worth paying attention to with a link to a twitter feed (e.g. a user account):

1. Discovering the New

2. Staying Current 

3. Following Conferences (I can’t attend) 

4. Listening in to How Other People Work

5. Connecting with Friends

6. People Watching 

So, in the end, I won’t argue that “you absolutely have to be on Twitter.” But, what I will say is that it makes for an interesting window into others’ monologues (be they interior or virtual).

*Note: over the past couple of years, many ed-tech users frequently praise Twitter as a means for isolated instructional technology specialists and/or “Educational Technologists” to communicate with each other. That is, one user posts a question for others to respond. I’m sure many folks use it that way (and find it helpful). I tend to find that there is something altogether exclusionary about Twitter when used this way. Too often it feels like a clique-ishness  gets developed where one user is only valuing the opinions of a smaller set (and then, at best it is navel-gazing; at worst, rather offensive).

* Originally published on the Clarity Innovations Foundry

Without questions the greatest highlight of NECC this year was the fact that one of the exhibitors had a mechanical bull on the trade show floor. I’m not at all sure what they were selling, but it was a mechanical bull that you could ride! Okay, maybe that wasn’t the “highlight” of the conference but I think it speaks to the extent to which the exhibit floor has changed over the past few years; gone are most of the booths with current or former educators as they’ve been replaced by a much more aggressive sales and marketing cadre.

Generally speaking, I tend to think of NECC as primarily a conference about two things: (1) A hardware show where developers show off their latest gadgets and gizmos; and (2) A shared learning event where (typically) educators show off strategies and stories as to how they are integrating technology into their classrooms. Of course, this can vary from year to year but, for the most part, I think those two categories hold true.

This year the one new-ish trend within those categories was the extent to which participants (be they principals, teachers, or vendors) are grappling with Web 2.0 technologies. Walking through the hall it was difficult not to find a vendor who wasn’t selling something that was “Web 2.0 savvy.” Sadly, most of what I saw was solutions that have a Web interface but don’t really allow for much user interaction or collaborative knowledge-building.

Attending conferences is also a process of meeting up with old acquaintances that you might not have seen in quite some time (or only happen to connect with once a year). In my case that occurred when I bumped into a fried who works with the Oracle Foundation (www.oraclefoundation.org, www.thinkquest.org, www.think.com). He is also involved with the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills (P21 - www.21stcenturyskills.org) and we had an incredibly interesting discussion about just what 21^st Century Skills are (and how things like the NETS standards do and don’t capture them). One very interesting thread of the discussion centered around just what it means when educators talk about the project-based skills of working in teams, collaboration, etc. That is, from my experience we often have students work in teams but that sort of engagement doesn’t really model how teams really work. I can recall textbooks from my teacher-school days which talked about how student teams need to be organized into groups like “facilitators” and “note-takers” but they tended to miss the point of working in teams; that project plans need to be developed, roadmaps charted and milestones created. Too often, the teacher creates that backbone and all the teams are left to do is connect the dots. Anyhow, I found it interesting and am looking forward to discussing the P21 initiative more.

I also managed to meet with Mike Muir who runs the Maine Center for Meaningful Engaged Learning. He shared a number of great insights into implementing 1:1 programs both in Maine and a variety of other locations. He is also heading up the ISTE Special Interest Group on One to One Learning. One item I found particularly interesting was a 1 to 1 Success Model his team developed.

Additionally, I attended a number of presentations - some of which were very good and some not so good - and have a few items that I think are well worth sharing. First off is what the American Film Institute is doing to support film and video education. They have a rather extensive library of online tutorials (a “virtual film school”) to help teachers get their students doing more with project-based videos.

A second very interesting tool I came across during a presentation by folks from Discovery Education was www.polleverywhere.com. I have a very strong dislike of audience response systems (aka “clickers”) that teachers can use to get feedback from students. For the most part I think they are a huge waste of money and a tool that has very limited value. The Poll Everywhere site underscores that; meaning, it allows you to create online polls that users can respond to by sending a text message from their cell phone. It gathers (and displays) real-time information. Nice!

What would Texas by without Bar-B-Q? Wait. Don’t answer that. On Wednesday night I managed to get out of San Antonio and headed southwest about 30 miles where a couple of friends and I found the “Bar-B-Q Patio.” As Jed Clampitt would say, “Woo-doggies!” That was some good eats. Also, one of my dining companions, Tim Wilson, is in charge of Apple’s conference podcasts so if you’ve got a hankering to listen-in on some of what happened at NECC, check them out .

Other Items to Watch

ISTE maintains a nice list of bloggers who are posting items about their conference experience. I’d recommend the following sites as ones I generally pay attention to and provided some good coverage into their NECC experience:

• Thinking Stick
• Elemenous
• Assorted Stuff
• EduBlogs
• Practical Theory

* originally posted on Clarity Innovation’s Foundry